Talking with the Dead
by shanejayell
Summary: It's been years since the calamity ended, but ghosts still haunt them.


Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Another, I'm only borrowing them for awhile. This story is set after the end of the anime, and therefore could be considered a spoiler. I also am not following the manga continuity... for reasons.

Another: Talking with the Dead

Mei Misaki was a unusual girl, though exactly how unusual was something she mostly kept secret. A student of Yomiyama North Middle School's class 3-3, she was a survivor of it's legendary curse. The attractive dark brown haired girl also wore a eye-patch, having lost a eye to cancer and seemingly uncomfortable with the glass eye replacing it.

That, however wasn't exactly true.

The beautifully sculpted glass eye... Mei could see through it, in a way. Maybe it was ESP, maybe something supernatural, but Mei could see what she called the color of death. She could see what was touched by death, even tell what should have stayed dead. Only covering up the ye cut off the visions, but that itself grew uncomfortable.

After the craziness she ended up leaving town, going to college in the big city. But it seemed you can't run away from the past...

"So, this is the typical home of a university student?" the reddish brown haired girl noted, her hair tied up with blue ribbons. "What a dump," she noted.

"Shut up, Izumi," Mei sighed as she tried to do her class work, "my psychiatrist says you're a hallucination."

"Ha!" Izumi Akazawa laughed as she sat against the desk. "That's rich," she chuckled, "I'm a ghost. One of YOUR ghosts to be exact."

Mei's hand tightened on her stylus. "You aren't anyone's," she said flatly.

"Oh no?" Izumi asked, bending down to bring her lips to Mei's ear. "You can see the dead, Mei. You knew who the dead one in our class REALLY was. You could have stopped the calamity whenever you wanted."

Mei jerked back, glaring up at her. "And would you have believed me?" she demanded.

"There we go," Izumi smiled, "it's nice to hear passion in your voice." She looked at her thoughtfully, "So, where is Kouichi-kun, hmm?"

Mei tried not to react, but it was hard. "We broke up," she answered flatly.

"Aww, that's too bad," Izumi noted in a teasing tone.

"Why?" Mei asked grimly. She sighed, "I know you wanted him for yourself, that's why you tried to kill me."

Izumi looked amused as Mei's attempt to turn things around. "No, dear, I tried to kill you because I thought I was saving the class," she said. "Just like her."

"Hi," a equally familiar voice snapped Mei's head around to see Takako Sugiura looking at her through her glasses, her short hair framing her face.

"Oh, terrific," Mei whimpered, "I'll never get this report finished.

Takako narrowed her eyes, glaring at Mei as she said, "That's it? That's all you have to say after killing me?"

"I didn't kill you," Mei sighed, "it was a accident. You KNOW that."

"I was a little busy at the time strangling to death," Takako shot back.

"And you got on the PA system of the inn, told everyone that the way to break the curse was to kill the dead person," Mei answered calmly, "and not incidentally told everyone that was me."

"Nobody's perfect," Izumi offered impishly.

"Ugh," Mei sighed. She was SO tempted to put her eyepatch on. It would block the visions, at least for now. But it was so uncomfortable, after awhile...

Takako sat on the other side of the desk, looking down at Mei. "Why didn't you tell anyone? Just to spare your boyfriend?"

"He's NOT my boyfriend. He wasn't even my boyfriend at the time either," Mei sighed.

Izumi continued, "You didn't want to hurt him, anyway."

"No I didn't," Mei conceded. She met the ghost's eyes, "He was kind to me, unlike the rest of the class."

Takako frowned, "Hey, you volunteered to be the invisible one."

Mei sighed. "It wasn't that different from how I was treated before," she pointed out.

"Poor thing," Izumi noted sarcastically. But there was a bit of... maybe not pity. Possibly regret? Something in her eyes, anyway.

It was kind of funny how both ghosts seemed discouraged by their inability to get Mei to feel terribly guilty about what had happened. Not that she didn't feel some guilt, of course. She'd be inhuman not to. But...

Takako kicked her legs uncomfortably. "You failed as the missing student and that got us killed," she rallied weakly.

Izumi sighed as she patted the other ghost on the shoulder as she said, "Oh, give it a rest, love."

"Love?" Meo asked, blinked.

Takako sounded defensive, "Well, we WERE close, you know.."

"Huh. I wouldn't have expected that," Mei noted thoughtfully.

"We've gone totally off track," Izumi sighed, then threw her hands in the air. "Never mind, we'll just come back tomorrow."

"Don't bring Yumi along," Mei sighed, "with her broken neck you can't understand her anyway."

"Will do," Takako nodded before girl just faded away.

Mei put her head in her hands and groaned. They'd probably bring the poor girl next time to annoy her. Looking up at her piles of homework Mei groaned and pushed away from the desk. She'd do what she could tomorrow.

The eye-patch went on, then Mei undressed and got read for bed. Laying down she mused tiredly, "Well, she's right about one thing. The shrink isn't doing much good." With that, she rolled over and went to bed.

End

Notes: I actually figured I'd get three to four pages from this idea, but I guess not. Anyway, the idea of Mei seeing ghosts is NOT cannon, but just a idea I had. I liked the idea of her 'yeah, whatever' attitude frustrating the ghosts trying to torment her.


End file.
